F.A.Premier Reserve League - South
               Vicarage Road, Watford
       Wednesday 21st February 2001 k.o.7.30pm.

            WATFORD    V      SPURS
         (Yellow/Red)       (White/Blue)
             3-4-3            3-4-3

               1(0)           2(1)

           Richard Lee 1 Ian Walker
             Tom Neill 2 Ian Hillier
      David Perpetuini 3 Andrew Burke
           James Okoll 4 Ciaran Toner
          Lloyd Doyley 5 Anthony Gardner
            Jerel Ifil 6 Destin Makumbu
          Sam Swonnell 7 John Piercy
     Stephen Armstrong 8 John Jackson
          Fabian Forde 9 Andy Booth
         Clint Easton 10 Steven Ferguson
             Lee Cook 11 Yannick Kamanan

      Barrie Matthews 12 Neale Fenn
          (2)45Mins.      (9)78Mins.
       Bradley Hughes 13 James Attwell
        Nick Williams 14 Maurizio Consorti
         Luke Edghill 15 James Quilter
          (9)89Mins.
      Elliott Godfrey 16 George Snee

Bookings - Burke - Yellow, Dangerous play 36, Ferguson - Yellow Kicking the ball away 50, Piercy - Red, Foul and abusive language 88.

It was a pleasent evening for the crowd of 399 which included listees Bruce and Elaine, Greg and Paul Smith and Jeff Richardson. David Pleat was in the Directors box right in front of us.

Spurs lined up with Hillier in the centre of defence, Makumbu on the right and Gardner on the left. Toner and Jackson played in front of them with Piercy on the right and Burke on the left. Booth was the target up front flanked by Ferguson and Kamanan.

An interesting formation using Booth as the target and Ferguson and Kamanan operating down the channels. It did leave the midfield a little exposed as the Hornets pushed up their fullbacks onto our wingbacks in a crowded middle third. This led to a scrappy midfield battle with little flowing football and few chances. There were lots of niggly fouls and a number of injuries. Easton had to have a bandage on his head. Booth also had a knock to the head (all Spurs strikers seem to have it in their contract). Neill got a boot in the face which got Burke a caution for dangerous play.

Most of the attacking play in the first half came from the home side with Spurs tending to favour the more direct approach with our first corner coming after nearly half an hour. Spurs took the lead in the 35th minute when a diagonal ball from the left found Piercy arriving at the far post. His initial shot was blocked by Lee and came back out to him. This time his shot hit the bar and rebounded to Kamanan who made no mistake. Walker had a good game despite a few gaffs and held all the shots that came his way.(Ed - except the goal!)

Spurs bypassed the midfield more in the second half which created more chances for them and a second goal. Walkers long kick allowed Ferguson to get behind the defence and as the keeper came to meet him he nodded the ball wide of him to give himself a simple tap-in. This was the second game that Walker can claim an assist for a goal.

Watford increased their workrate and pushed men forward looking to get back in and Walker had to save a number of efforts including a couple of drives from Cook. With Okoll and Ifil mopping up much of the long balls coming at them Spurs were content to sit back allowing them to push forward, trying to hit them on the break. Watford did not resort to long balls prefering to pass their way through the midfield. They were rewarded with a goal in the 83rd minute. A freekick was flighted to the far post where Okoll's powered header was too strong for Walker to hold.

Spurs held on, despite losing Piercy, for disputing a throw-in, to take the points. The ref seemed more concerned with petty things like correct placement of the ball for throw-ins and freekicks than with the physical nature of the tackling from both sides although he did blow-up for much of the pushing and other niggly things that produced a rather stop-go game. Our next match is at St.Albans on the 6th March when we play Charlton.

Ray